Page 86 of A Witch in Notting Hill

Go on, then, I mouthed.

You first, she mouthed back, her gentle smile turning into a full grin.

I knew exactly what to ask for.

Chapter 29

Willow

The festival was going even better than I’d hoped. We’d done the moon water workshop, meditated, listened to a sound bath, watched a fire show, drunk cocktails with names we couldn’t pronounce and herbs sticking out the top, and danced along to the relentless drummers. If all I had to do was participate, I was doing a hell of a job.

“Reckon we should take that lantern walk?” Oliver asked, stretching his long arms above his head. “Getting a little batty just wandering through this part of the park over and over. Ready for a change of scenery.”

“A walk sounds nice,” I agreed, hoping I didn’t sound as eager as I felt.

“You guys go ahead,” Lola said. “I need to rest my feet. Min, come with me.”

“But the lantern—”

“Min,” she hissed, and he got the message. There was no question they were leaving us alone on purpose, and I couldn’t bring myself to care. At this point in the night, a little peace andquiet might not be the worst thing. And if that meant time alone with Oliver, well, I wasn’t complaining.

Oliver only laughed and shook his head, and I followed his lead in the direction of the path.

“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” Lola called over her shoulder as they walked back toward the center of the festival.

“There isn’t much you wouldn’t do,” he said.

“That’s the point.”

“She’s too cheeky for her own good, that one,” he whispered to me, guiding me toward the path with a steady hand on my lower back. “A break from her might actually give us a second to hear ourselves think.”

“And what are you thinking about?” I asked, emboldened by the night and the moon and the fact that nothing catastrophic had happened yet. And it wasn’t exactly like the night was young. It might have actually been possible all my magic had been channeled into the moon rituals, and I wouldn’t explode anything just because Oliver was close to me.

“You,” he answered easily, falling into step beside me as we made our way. At this hour, a gentle quiet blanketed this part of the park, and the paper lanterns lining the path cast Oliver in a warm yellow glow. He looked just as magical as anything else we’d done so far, and it made it hard to focus.

“What about me?”

“Well, first of all, you look freezing.” He shrugged off his wool coat and wrapped it around my shoulders, and I didn’t argue. It was the middle of the night in November, and I was not dressed appropriately for the weather. I looked great, but it came at a price. A hefty one. “And second of all, you look beautiful.”

The back of his hand brushed across the back of mine, and my goose bumps had nothing to do with the temperature.

“Thank you,” I said. “You don’t look so bad yourself.” He adjusted his lapels, and I had a brief flash of wanting to grabthem and rip his jacket off. A searing, haunting vision of what it would look like to give into temptation and see what happened next.

“What areyouthinking about?” he asked, one eyebrow raised like he could read my mind.

“I, uh... you,” I said, and laughed, unable to think of a lie. And it wasn’t like he had to know thewholetruth.

“Ah, something we have in common.” He smiled. “I’m grateful you brought me here, Willow.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, not just to the festival but out of the shop and out of my comfort zone. I can get a little complacent when things are easy, and it’s been nice to be reminded of what else is out here in the city.”

I wasn’t expecting that, and it took me a minute to calibrate. This whole time, I thought this adventure had been primarily an obligation for him. Something that started as work and might have turned into more, but never crossed the line of responsibility. He planned to use his industry knowledge to help me find what I needed, planned to help keep me out of the public eye, and planned to let his friends in on a little quest. I never considered it might be benefiting him, too.

“Careful,” I teased. “Keep talking like that and I might think you actually like witchcraft.”

“It isn’t the witchcraft I like.”